tower-defense
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Tower Defense + Twitter = Tweet Defense
I don't know if this is a great idea or an invitation to clog up your Twitter feed with inanity (go ahead, hit me with your best shot in the comments on that open invitation), but Tweet Defense takes the usual tower defense game to a new "social" level by upgrading your towers based on how much you tweet. What's the worst that could happen, right? Slidetoplay says it'll debut at $.99, but what price could you put on leveling up via Twitter, really?" [Via Joystiq]
Fieldrunners updated to 1.3, offers two new maps as in-app purchases
Touch Arcade has word that one of 2008's best iPhone games (our 2009 list is coming out this week), Fieldrunners [iTunes link, $2.99], has released an update (1.3), in which they've released two new maps available as in-app purchases, and they've included OpenFeint 2.4 functionality, with messaging, chat, and everything else the in-game social network portends. The two new maps are called Skyway and Frostbite. Skyway boasts a metal floor with a few holes in it, which limit where you can place your units in the tower defense classic. Frostbite is a snowfield with a base in the middle to defend from attackers on all sides. Seems like both offer up some interesting twists on the gameplay -- they're 99 cents each (a fact that has the most recent iTunes reviews up in arms), but if you ask us, two bucks for new content is cheap, especially if you're a big Fieldrunners fan already. The update itself is a free download for paid users, though, so if you want that OpenFeint functionality, hit up the App Store and load the game up yet again.
Savage Moon lands on PSP December 22
It looks like the PSP is quickly becoming the new destination for tower defense games. Savage Moon joins the growing list of tower defense games on Sony's handheld, such as PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe and Fieldrunners; however, unlike the other games listed here, the handheld Savage Moon isn't a port, it's a brand new game, adding "two new species, a new interface and the ability to unlock vengeance mode for each Imoon." Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store next week, December 22, for $9.99. See a trailer after the break. %Gallery-75333%
Anti-Aliased: What is Love?
So what is love? That's certainly the metaphysical question of the ages, isn't it? Is it simply an attraction to another gender, or is it a deep bond between two people that goes beyond mere friendship, and more into the realm of headbanging, suit and sunglasses wearing pride? Do I have the authority to take on questions such as this in my editorial column?Heck no! That's why we're going to spend this week talking about Eskil Steenberg's indie-MMO, Love! We've been covering Love extensively this week, announcing that the alpha was available and showing off some really beautiful in-game footage. But, even with all of that, we never got into the meat of the game. What is Love about? What do you do in it? Why is it so special to us on the Massively staff?Those questions and more will be answered in this week's edition. So come on in, the Love is great!
The Daily Quest: Squash
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Tower Defense in WoW? It's true! Sort of. Doctors of Philosophy helps you build a Paladin for AOE grinding. Nourish brings us another wonderful recipe for winter. Does anybody else think squash is really weird? I mean... squash. How absurd. MMO Musings compares The Light of Dawn and the Wrath Gate. Which do you think was the better event? Click here to submit a link to TDQ
Runes of Magic goes tower defense
Now here's something you don't see everyday in your MMO -- tower defense. Runes of Magic's newest PvP arena, Visdun Fortress, is a tower defense battle between two teams of three players.For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of tower defense, the objective is simple -- use stationary towers to defend your side of the board to make sure no monsters come in and reach your base. Towers can be usually made in different flavors, such as ice towers to slow down monsters, fire towers to damage monsters and burn them over time, etc. Towers can also be upgraded as the game progresses, as defeating monsters yields points you can spend on more towers or tower upgrades.
TGS 2009: Impressions: Toy Soldiers (XBLA)
While it has become an extremely popular style of game over the last few years, tower defense titles have always struck me as a boring concept, personally. Perhaps it's my penchant for firing weapons at moving targets in first-person, but I can't really articulate my lack of enthusiasm for the strategy-style gameplay. My initial reaction to Toy Soldiers -- a tower defense game in a World War I setting -- in a behind-closed-doors Microsoft demo? Snore. Imagine my surprise, then, that I soon got genuinely excited to play the game when it lands sometime next year.%Gallery-73953%
Watch one frame of Gratuitous Space Battles being rendered
Indie games developer Positech Games caught our attention again with more footage of its upcoming tower defense title Gratuitous Space Battles. In the latest video, Positech shows off the process of rendering a single frame in one of the game's marquee deep space standoffs. If you're a fan of tower defense titles -- or some kind of time-lapse photo enthusiast -- check out the clip after the break.[Thanks, Cliff]
Defense Grid protects XBLA on Sept. 2
Developer Hidden Path has shown the way to Defense Grid: The Awakening's release: it hits XBLA on September 2. The tower defense title was well received in its PC incarnation and will cost 800 ($10) on the console.The Xbox version of the game includes the Borderlands (not be confused with the other Borderlands) mission pack, along with a few new challenge modes. The game already comes with a full campaign and what appears to be a significant amount of content for the price.%Gallery-30801%[Via Eurogamer]
Crystal Defenders attacking PSP
What's Square Enix's most prolific game this generation? Well, apparently it's Crystal Defenders, a 2D tower defense game that's appeared on iPhone, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii ... and PSP, according to the German USK ratings system. Considering the low-fi quality of the graphics (the Xbox 360 version is in the video above), it shouldn't be a very difficult game to port.[Via GamerBytes]
Comic-Con 2009: South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! in action
Update: Above, we've added our own footage form the Comic-Con show floor!Whatever you've been doing for the past 15 minutes, we promise you it's been more productive than us. See, we've been trying to make heads or tails of UGO's gameplay footage for South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! you'll find after the break.It looks sort of like a typical tower defense game, except the kids seem to be building the towers themselves. Also, they're sort of like mobile towers of their own, and it seems that several people are playing cooperatively. It's all very puzzling, but at least it can't be worse than Chef's Luv Shack.
Gratuitous Space Battles is just that
Indie games developer Positech Games has been quietly working on a tower defense game set in space, and has uploaded the first footage. Gratuitous Space Battles doesn't have any kind of tentative release date, and this video is more a brief demonstration of the game's goals, but we think it's kinda cool. And if that doesn't do it for you, squint hard and pretend you're watching Battlestar Galactica. Head past the break for the footage.[Via Offworld]
How's Life as a Darklord?
"Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord may have a name that's similar to predecessor My Life as a King," Andriasang writes, "but the two games are nothing alike." So much for the dream of running an evil town full of evil adventurers.Instead, Andriasang describes the WiiWare game as a unique variation of tower defense. As heroes storm your tower, you delay their progress by adding floors to the structure and filling them with monsters. The strategy comes not only from managing your resources enough to build as many floors as you can, but also in placing things so that there isn't too much stuff on one floor. If there is, the heroes can just skip over a floor!See a video of the game in action after the break.%Gallery-48531%
Joystiq review: Plants vs. Zombies
Something terrible happened to the Joystiq staff in the spring of 2007. Our desire to work was leeched by some uncanny force, some primordial vacuum of journalistic motivation. These sapping energies could be easily identified by scanning our browser history -- there, a repeated phrase, a moniker for our destitution: Desktop Tower Defense, Desktop Tower Defense, Desktop Tower Defense, Google, Desktop Tower Defense -- and so on, et cetera.Two years (and a hundred thousand Pellet Towers) later, our thirsts had been quenched, and our diligence restored. Then, on May 5, the minds at PopCap gave birth to a new source of blogger work ethic poison -- as is their nefarious custom -- titled Plants vs. Zombies. Yes, those monsters combined our two biggest interests (the undead and household horticulture), and wrapped the whole package up in a neat Tower Defense crust, which they then sprinkled with humor, and roasted until brilliant.Also, there's probably some crack (or equally addictive narcotic) in there as well.
Midnight movie: Plants vs. Zombies, the music video
In the battle to determine which is more bizarre -- a game about plants battling zombies or a music video about a game where plants battle zombies -- the latter has prevailed. Ladies and gentlemen, for tonight's bedtime snack we present Plants vs. Zombies: The Music Video, based on PopCap's upcoming (and if you hadn't guessed, totally weird) tower defense game for PC ... Plants vs. Zombies.What's your favorite part? The zombies with butter on their heads? The zombie dolphins? The whole mad thing? It takes a company like PopCap -- purveyors of unicorn-infused digital crack like Peggle -- to invent something that just has to be an April Fools' joke but, we swear, totally isn't. Brace yourself, then click through after the break for animated insanity.
The OverAchiever: Master of Alterac Valley
It's Alterac Valley weekend once again, and although you can't currently use the Alterac Valley Marks of Honor for anything other than old world rewards right now, the Battleground still remains one of the best places to farm Honor. In case you're hitting up the frozen valley this weekend, here's a handy guide that should help you through the Achievements you need to get Master of Alterac Valley. Alterac Valley VeteranWin 100 games. I don't know about you, but I personally don't enjoy Alterac Valley enough to slog through the number of games required to win 100 times. That's probably because of my Battlegroup, where I find myself losing more than I win. Like all veteran Achievements, this really is just a matter of time, and the only real problem is finding yourself on the losing faction -- which tends to be a trend in many Battlegroups unlike other maps, which are largely symmetrical. Alterac Valley is asymmetrical, so a Battlegroup with a faction that knows how to take advantage of the asymmetry will tend to win most of the time. I'll peg this one at hard, and I think some of you will agree.Difficulty: HardAlterac Grave RobberThis is ridiculously easy because it doesn't require you to actually capture or convert the flag, just tag it. During the course of one game, there'll be many opportunities for you to do so. Snowfall Graveyard, the uncontrolled graveyard at the start of the game, is an excellent target that can be taken over and over.Difficulty: Easy
PSN Thursday: A savage, bejeweled moon will challenge your brain
Savage Moon finally makes an appearance on the American PSN Store this week alongside a smattering of other tasty offerings. PopCap's first PSN release, Bejeweled 2, is available as well as a pretty decent amount of LittleBigPlanet downloadable content. There are also the normal rhythm-based add-ons and Burnout Paradise's price has been dropped to only $19.99. At that price you'd have to be insane not to pick it up. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: PS3 / PSP (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists; Euro releases here.)
Crystal Defenders R1 site opens with screens and trailer
Just one day after the WiiWare version of Crystal Defenders (now Crystal Defenders R1) was revealed by (early) Famitsu scans, Square Enix has opened the official Japanese website for the iPhone/mobile remake. Not since Lock's Quest have we been ... even slightly excited about a tower defense game!We saw blurry, small screens of the game in those scans, but the website features pixel-perfect screens, highlighting the colorful, somewhat retro 2D style and cute sprites. Even better, larger screens can be found at Famitsu. The official site also features a trailer and a rather large selection of wallpaper images -- all of which seems delightfully lavish for a WiiWare game! But, then, this is only the second (non-Taito, internally-developed) WiiWare game for SE. They can afford to put a nice website together for each one.[Via Famitsu]
Crystal Defenders prepare to protect XBLA, PSN, WiiWare
Crystal Defenders, Square Enix's mobile and iPod* tower defense game, is ready to make the move to consoles. Japanese mag Famitsu reveals (via IGN) that the WiiWare version will be known as Crystal Defenders R1. Aside from the fact that it'll offer "Wi-Fi connection support," little else is known about the title. Crystal Defenders R1 will be ready to protect the Wii in Japan on January 27 for 1,000 Wii Points. The XBLA and PSN versions, which will allegedly be updated forms of the original game, currently have no price nor release date. Check out a trailer of the mobile game here.*Regular version costs $8, Lite version is free.
Wii Fanboy Review: Sandy Beach
While not all of Hudson's WiiWare offerings are necessarily successful in terms of sales or critical response, they've been responsible for some of the best, and best-selling, games on the service. And even when they don't do so well, effort is evident. So why can't Hudson's parent company, Konami, take a lesson from their subsidiary? Since the launch of the service, they've released only two games: Critter Round-Up and this. So they've released, like, one and a quarter games.Sandy Beach is a baffling release -- in that I can't fathom how Konami saw this and decided there was enough game to be worth releasing. It's really two games, but the sum fails to provide enough value for the 500 Wii Point cost. %Gallery-31918%
